久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
China
Home / China / Business

Chinese wheels really start rolling in East Africa

By Wang Chao | China Daily | Updated: 2014-07-15 06:57

Vehicle giant looks ahead with its first factory in the Kenyan capital, reports Wang Chao in Nairobi

Beiqi Foton Motor Co's commitment in Africa used to be little more than an annual meeting with local dealers.

But on Saturday, production started at its new assembly plant in Nairobi, meaning its vehicles are likely to appear in much larger numbers soon across the East Africa region.

The company, along with the Beijing government, is set to sign an agreement with Nairobi to offer advice on a growing problem in the burgeoning Kenyan capital: traffic congestion.

The biggest city in Kenya is the transportation and business hub of East Africa, but much like in Beijing, its streets are struggling to cope with a massive growth in cars and commercial vehicles.

A report by IBM Consulting listed Nairobi as one of the world's most congested cities, estimating that $430 million is wasted every year as a result of congestion, largely due to obsolete public transportation systems.

Foton, which designs and manufactures trucks, buses, sport utility vehicles and agricultural machinery, will join with the Beijing government to help create a plan to reconfigure and relocate the city's bus stops, phase out obsolete buses and improve the traffic light system.

Foton will also ask local authorities to buy its flagship product, the alternative-fuel bus from Foton AUV (Asian utility vehicle).

Foton already has a 25 percent share of Beijing's public bus fleet. Huo Yan, director of marketing and branding for its passenger vehicle division, said its Kenyan expansion will be a huge leap forward.

Instead of pure exports, the company is now a truly local operation offering workable economic solutions.

"This is a very rare opportunity for Chinese automakers, and we are very proud of that," Huo said.

Foton also plans to introduce a new model to the Kenyan market, a multipurpose vehicle designed for small business owners.

Beijing plans to mark the company's expansion in Nairobi by donating two Foton Tunland pickups to the Masai Mara National Reserve, which will be used to support its wild animal protection initiatives.

Africa is not completely virgin territory for Foton. It has been exporting to the continent since 2005. Last year, the company shipped more than 40,000 vehicles overseas. Although the number sent to Africa was not specified, the company said the region showed strong growth momentum.

It opened its Kenyan sales operation in March 2012, and the Tunland is already popular in the country.

Huo said that over the past two years, the Chinese domestic commercial vehicle market has struggled to recover after the country's economic slowdown, and the parent company's overseas market has become a lifeline for many automakers, including Foton. Its latest figures showed export volumes grew 10 to 20 percent over the past two years.

Huo said Foton's new Kenyan plant will play an important role in expanding into key East African economies. "We will use Nairobi as our manufacturing base and gradually radiate to the whole East Africa region. This also means Foton is transforming itself from being purely a trade company into a local vehicle producer."

The vehicles will be assembled and customized to suit local requirements.

"In China, the commercial vehicle market is already saturated after 30 years of development, so there is little room for sales improvement. To gain a bigger market, we have to look beyond our borders," Huo said.

Foton has three main parts to its export business: fully assembled vehicles; local assembly of imported parts and local production, which means the company buys many components locally and avoids high import tariffs.

Foton has already started such local production lines in Russia and India.

In the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, where import tariffs are relatively low, the fully assembled option is the most feasible.

Kenya's tariffs on vehicle imports are considered in the mid-level category, so the Foton Kenya plant will ship parts from China and assemble them locally.

"The fully assembled car import tariff is 45 percent," Huo said, but if the company assembles locally, the tariff can be vastly reduced. "It also allows us to create jobs locally."

Foton plans to build 16 assembly plants overseas this year and another eight next year, bringing its overseas plants to 52 spanning the Middle East, Southeast Asia, North Africa and Central America.

Zhao Yufeng, assistant general manager of Foton, said Africa is a perfect export destination for China's surplus vehicle production.

"Taking commercial vehicles (trucks and pickups) as an example: the European, American, Japanese and South Korean markets are almost saturated with their own domestic products, and the Chinese market has now passed its golden growth days, so we have to find an outlet for the capacity we currently have."

China is now producing more than 1 million medium- and heavy-duty trucks a year, compared with Europe's 300,000.

Zhao predicted that China-made trucks will become increasingly popular in developing countries.

"I can imagine a world market where the heavy-duty, cab-behind-the-engine trucks (often called long-nose trucks) will be confined to the American market; Europe will continue making high-end trucks. But in South Asia, North Africa, Central Asia, and West Asia, where consumers are more price-sensitive, European products will be too expensive, and many will turn to Chinese trucks."

Contact the writer at wangchao@chinadaily.com.cn

 

Editor's picks
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 在线播放免费播放av片 | 亚洲欧洲日产国码一级毛片 | 在线a亚洲视频播放在线观看 | 91久久另类重口变态 | 国产欧美一区二区三区精品 | 草视频在线观看 | 精品一区二区三区高清免费不卡 | 成人国产精品999视频 | 亚洲品质自拍 | 思思91精品国产综合在线 | 一本色道久久综合网 | 精品老司机在线视频香蕉 | 中国一级毛片在线观看 | 午夜性生活视频 | 一区二区三区免费视频 www | 成人一级黄色毛片 | 黑人巨大交牲老太 | 99视频国产在线 | 美国一级毛片a | 国产成人丝袜视频在线视频 | 色老头一区二区三区在线观看 | 亚洲网址在线观看 | 初爱视频教程在线观看高清 | 国产精品成人在线播放 | 特级aa一级欧美毛片 | 欧美成人亚洲综合精品欧美激情 | 真实偷清晰对白在线视频 | 色综合91久久精品中文字幕 | 国产精品99久久久久久小说 | 亚洲精品成人一区二区 | 精品欧美日韩一区二区 | 国产综合13p | 久久国产欧美另类久久久 | 黄色美女免费网站 | 日韩美一区二区三区 | 美女三级网站 | 亚洲欧美男人天堂 | 精品72久久久久久久中文字幕 | 色婷婷91| 精品视频一区二区 | 国内精品久久久久久 |